Privatize Worries

Starlee Speers, Astral Media Radio - Vernon

Hospital maintenance workers are appealing to the Interior health authority to reconsider the public private partnership agreement for Vernon and Kelowna hospital expansions. Jeet Dukhia is the chief engineer at V-J-H. He says maintenance workers have been told to wait until the end of July to find out if their jobs will be privatized. Dukhia says, he's trying to educate people about the repercussions of P3's. He says Private Public Partnerships effectively turn healthcare into a business and end up costing the taxpayer more. Interior Health announced last year that hospital cleaning staff would not be included in the P3 negotiations but left maintenance workers in the request for proposal. He says while he hopes maintenance workers won't be included in the contract for the hospital expansions in Vernon and Kelowna he's more concerned about health turning into a business. Dukhia says he wasn't disappointed with the lack of response from the directors at the North Okanagan Regional District Wednesday. It's expected the contract will be revealed at the end of the month.